Reasoned Debate is a performance project where two or more people enter into a rigorous and well researched debate on the most important issues of our time while riding the New York City subway.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

April 3, 2008

Below is the first debate we recorded of our second time out on the train on April 3, 2008.

Compared to the first videos, the audio is much better on this one. We got more responses from the riders this time around too. Although we didn't get video of the most interesting response it was encouraging that people were interested enough to ask questions and interact with us.

In fact, one person was so angry by what Chris was saying that he got up from his seat, took the sign Chris was holding, crumpled it up and threw it at him. He wasn't particularly interested in hearing about the various reasons the "surge" isn't working; he really wanted us to just shut up. Of course, we kept the debate up and he eventually got off the train but it was certainly an interesting experience.

Hopefully as the project progresses, we will have more and more interactions with riders.

Debate 1:

The debaters were Chris Voss (arguing that the surge is not working) and Michelle Shafer (arguing that the surge is working). Alex Fayer shot the video.